Courts have, traditionally, required the plaintiff to prove to the requisite standard of proof that causation exists. This project addressed what has, to date, been a modest reform toward permitting recovery based on a probability that causation exists, discounting the damages awarded by the probability of causation. The approach was endorsed in the European Group’s Principles of European Tort Law of 2005. The central purpose of the Group’s inquiry was to employ a comparative methodology to better understand how different legal systems respond to causal uncertainty and to examine why, how and in what situations rules of proportional liability can promote the goals of tort law.
